The Enigma Within (Thorn Under Pedals Book 2)

Chapter 3:

Cold icy wind blew around the small crowd in the cemetery. Large droplets wet the grassy field under their shoes and clothes. Some of the men in the crowd held umbrellas that shielded the ladies from the onslaught. The gray dark over-headed sky reflected the mood that hung in the air. Sadness, grief, disbelief, heartache, and regret all were felt. Isabella held guilt as her eyes took in an empty casket being lowered to the opened ground. A priest in his holy robes that was ceremental was speaking in prayers that most of them were not listening to. Memories of Elizabeth in their lives were filling their minds causing tears to fall.

Isabella, Arthur, and Erik all stood side by side in the front as the ones closest to Elizabeth since she had only distant relatives. Isabella had found an address book that Elizabeth’s mother had kept with phone numbers to Aunts, uncles, second cousins, and one pair of grandparents. Thankfully once Isabella called the grandparents they took care of the rest as was their right as family. Elizabeth had been close to her grandmother and the news was devastating. Isabella placed one of her hands on the grandmother's shaking shoulders.

A wrinkly thin aged hand gently gripped Isabella’s hand. Water fogged eyes turned to stare back. Trails of tears lined her cheeks that blended into the drops of rain. Isabella squeezed her shoulder in comfort even as her own face was wet with her tears. There were no words she could say to take away the pain she knew they felt. The grief they were feeling could not be calmed. Isabella felt terrible to do this when she knew that Elizabeth was actually alive. That this was all set up to protect her. Isabella had to keep this charade up no matter how much it was eating her up alive.

Once prayers were said the grandparents went up to the casket that was down in the hole to sprinkle dirt onto the top. Dirt that had been covered by the priest under his umbrella. Isabella and the guys each followed suit before a couple of the distant family. Next some of the cemetery workers shuffled the muddy dirt to cover the casket deep into the ground. Family slowly faded away leaving the site until the five of them were the only ones still routed to their spots.

Silently the three friends watched as the grandfather ushered his wife away gently as they had an appointment to get to for some doctor visit. Arthur tilted the umbrella over Isabella a bit more letting the water drip on his shoulder a bit. “I can’t believe she is gone.” The words made Isabella flinch as their silence was disturbed after so long. Erik had spoken in a whisper but the words seemed so loud jarring the other two out of their own heads. Isabella could hear the grief lacing each word.

Arthur sighed deeply. “We should have never let her leave.”

“We couldn’t stop her.” Isabella whispered trying to ease the blame Arthur was harboring. “She would have just left without any of us knowing.”

“Izzy is right.” Erik grunted, turning his head to look at both of them. “Elizabeth was too stubborn to listen even if we tried to stop her.”

Arthur nodded. Isabella placed her hand over Arthurs that held the umbrella. His hand loosened the tight grip that had his knuckles white. Arthur looked down at Isabella and gave her a very small smirk just at the corner of one of his lips. Erik shuffled on his feet staring down at the grave.

Isabella and Arthur watched as Erik crouched down to his knees with his head bowed. “I hope you can finally rest in peace and be surrounded with the love of your family.” He whispered.

Isabella’s heart tightened in her chest and fresh tears slipped down her cheeks as she heard him. How much she truly wished that Elizabeth would have peace as well. All three of them saw how her family's deaths had drained the life out of her. Before Elizabeth was interactive, more playful with pranks, and the life of the party when she wished to be. Afterwards Elizabeth had turned to the voice of reason in the group, more reserved, and snappy to playful pranks that used to have her smiling. Not that Elizabeth hadn’t tried to hide her inner pain to fool them. It was just that there were some things that she could not hide.

“I bet she’s getting an earful from her brother right now.” Isabella tried to lighten the mood, reminding the guys of how crazy he took keeping sports cars in top condition. The man was very over the top from what Elizabeth had shared in story’s about him. Mentally Isabella prayed her brother would not be mad at her for what she had done to the car. She hoped he understood why she had done it.

Erik chuckled just thinking about the earful that Elizabeth would be getting. “She would never be able to get away with it.” He agreed.

“I wonder what kind of punishment he is going to deal her this time.” Arthur added. Even in death he was sure the brother would make Elizabeth do some task she would hate claiming it was a lesson of responsibility.

Erik spoke after a couple minutes of silence, “I can just see him making her clean cars or whatever in heaven.”

Isabella and Arthur laughed, visualizing a similar thing that Erik was. The face Elizabeth would make would be a disgruntled face fall. They knew that Elizabeth had been wanting her older brother's approval. She was terrified of disappointing him even a bit that it would ruin her mood for most of the day. It was difficult to cheer her up in those times or distract her.

Erik stood up right and the three of them moved to where the car they shared was parked. Isabella wrapped her arms around herself to feel slightly warmer. Arthur draped his dress jacket on Isabella’s shivering shoulders hoping to keep her warm. Isabella smiled gratefully. Erik held the door open for Isabella to sit in the passenger side while Arthur slid in the backseat. Before anyone got comfortable in their spots Isabella’s phone vibrated in the cup holder. Her eyes shot to the scene, seeing the words “Doctor Michell”.

“Hello.” Isabella quickly answered, not caring who heard the conversation.

“Miss Johnson?” A gruff voice came from the other end.

“This is her.” Isabella clinched the phone tightly anxious to know why the doctor that was taking care of Elizabeth was calling. “Has something happened to my sister?” Both guys silently listened while sitting tense. They were slowly clipping the seatbelts in trying to make as little noise as possible.

“She is awake. Her eyes opened ten minutes ago and her vitals are stable.” He started to explain.

One single tear slid down her cheek. Relief swelled her heart. "I'll be there soon." Isabella breathed.

“When you come in…” The doctor's voice paused. Worry started to edge her mind with thoughts when the doctor took his time pausing. What happened? What was he trying to say? Was something not right? All this was floating in her mind. “Miss Johnson I am afraid that your sister…that she has memory loss.”

“M-memory loss?” Isabella’s voice muttered, not sure if she had heard him correctly. This was always a possibility but hearing the words just were different than they had been at this moment. “Surely you are incorrect. She is probably just confused because she knows no one there.”

Arthur and Erik glanced at Isabella with concern in their eyes. She just stared straight ahead, not paying them attention. Both of the guys could see her hands shaking from the news that was very possibly true but they knew that Isabella did not want to believe them. Arthur turned to Erik and in a silent conversation the guys agreed to turn on the car and start heading to the hospital. Erik already knew where it was thanks to Arthur giving him the directions a week ago so that he could pick them up when Arthur’s truck had needed a jumpstart.

Whatever the doctor had said to Isabella they could not hear but Arthur could see tears sliding down her cheeks from the mirror on the side. His heart constricted. He wished that he could take her pain away and help her anyway that he could. This whole thing with her sister made him feel useless.

Isabella ended the call and clenched the phone in her hands fighting the rage as well as the overwhelming grief for Elizabeth. She heard the doctor in her head over and over on repeat. “When she woke up I asked her if she remembered who she was. Miss Johnson, your sister looked at me with no expression claiming that she didn’t know anything about herself. I have never seen such an empty chilling gaze in my career. I have placed some tests in through blood work and scans as I was concerned with her behavior. She is stable and healthy. There is nothing that I can find that explains her cold calm behavior. You must brace yourself for not seeing her the way you remember as her hair has changed to silver and this behavior.”

There was no way that Elizabeth was like that. Isabella’s mind just didn’t see that happening when they saw each other. She still held onto the belief that it was because Elizabeth had woken up not knowing any of them there. Elizabeth was just confused and not sure what was happening. That had to be what was happening. Isabella took calming breaths not even sure how to handle the news of silver hair added to the mix. There was too much in the doctor's words that left her a mess of emotions puddled at her feet.

Erik drove through traffic in the tense silence they had in the car. All of them were in their own heads. Not with just the way Isabella’s call had shifted her mood but also from leaving the funeral of their linked friend. Erik ran his free hand over his exhausted face. When his hand brushed the stubble that had been growing the thought of shaving crossed his mind again. Everytime the thought came he heard Elizabeth’s teasing tone from a far away memory that drifted to his mind.

Elizabeth was closer to his face with a frown on her lips. Her nose scrunched up in disgust as her finger brushed his cheek that had a stubble much smaller than he had now growing. “Are you trying to look like Chris Hemsworth with that look? You look more like Dan Levy.” He could see the glint in her eyes of mischief trying to rattle his feathers in her remark. At the time it had worked as he had hated being called a geek even if it was a reference to one of her horror movie actors. It was always a reference to horror movies with Elizabeth at that time Erik thought it was because that was the only time her brother was spending time with her. At least in a positive way though Elizabeth would have denied that if he had asked her.

Erik wondered what reference she would make now that the facial hair was getting longer than just a stubble scratching his face. The familiar pang of grief gripped his chest and his throat tightened. He was fighting back the tears that he knew were going to come with this feeling. The tears would blur his vision of the road and he did not need that right now. Elizabeth would yell at him in the afterlife if he caused them to get in an accident just because his emotions got the best of him.

“You're going to miss the turn at this speed.” Arthur's voice drew Erik out of the thought and forced him to slow down realizing that he was right. With Arthur’s help they made the turn to the hospital and Erik found a decent parking spot in the middle of the parking lot. As the vehicle shifted into park Isabella was already unbuckling her seatbelt. She quickly got out the door, nearly hitting the other car if Erik hadn’t made sure she had more space on that side prior to parking.

Arthur grabbed her purse that she had forgotten before heading after her. Erik sighed, being the last to leave. Clicking the lock button he made his way slowly to the entrance watching Isabella running across and Arthur jogging behind. Erik yelled out seeing how close she was to getting hit. “Isabella! You better slow down or you're going to get yourself killed!”

Thankfully Arthur jerked Isabella out of the way from the approaching car in time. “Do you want to get hit?!” He yelled at her. His grip on her elbow was tight from his angry concern.

Her eyes wide not used to seeing this side of Arthur. His eyes were narrowed at her, piercing her in her place. She gulped seeing anger in his eyes. Though she knew that he would never harm her, Isabella felt her old habits surfacing. She clenched her eyes shut tightly waiting for a blow that would never come. Her head lowered and her body tried to make her smaller than she was hoping that the fall down wouldn’t be as painful.

Seeing her shrinking in size and the shaking of her fear Arthur released her feeling stung with hurt. He had not meant for her to react like this. “Izzy I w-” He began with a shaky whisper as his hand went to touch her cheek. When the touch came Isabella flinched as her body was afraid of the pain that should have come. His hand felt like it was burning from the flinch that Isabella had made. He pulled his hand away.

“You need to watch where you are going.” Erik said as he came up to them. Taking in the scene and seeing the signs of the trauma Isabella had gone through. He could see the hurt in Arthur knowing he was blaming himself for causing this. “Arthur and I were concerned we would lose you too.” Erik softened his tone hoping it would unravel the surfaced habit.

The pair waited for Isabella to open her eyes. Erik knew that she was most likely trying to reason her body to calm down. Isabella fought with herself. Memories of the abuse her father inflicted on her were in her mind. She had not thought about the memories in so long. Since the first week she had moved in with Elizabeth. Isabella had to repeat to herself that Erik and Arthur were not the same. That neither one of them would hurt her like that. What felt like forever was really minutes until she fluttered her eyes open. The first thing she saw was the broken look glistening in Arthur’s eyes as he looked at the floor.

“I’m sorry.” She could barely hear him with how softly he had muttered his words.

She was not sure how to express that it was not because she was afraid of him but she had to at least try. Isabella did not want him to think that. “Arthur..I know you meant well.” Isabella forced herself to speak through the lump in her throat. “You would n-never harm me like him. I just…My b-body…” Tears started to fall. “It’s an old habit that I struggle to b-break.”

Arthur nodded. He felt a little better hearing her admit he wouldn’t lay his hands on her in harm but that did nothing to help with the image of her cowering before him in fear.

“Let’s go check on your sister.” Erik voiced hoping this would help defuse the situation with a distraction. Isabella and Arthur nodded. This time all of them stuck together as they made the way to the doors. The hospital made Isabella shiver as she pushed back unpleasant memories. The three of them walked to the front desk. The guys let Isabella speak.

“I’m here to see my sister.” She announced to the lady in front of her.

“What’s her name?” The nurse asked.

“Cassandra Johnson.” Isabella answered a bit afraid she would mess up the name since it was made up. The nurse flipped through the files on her table until she found the correct one.

“Room 2014.” The nurse said straight to the point.

The three turned to head to the right which was the direction the room was in. They only took two steps when the nurse stopped them by adding. “Only family members are permitted to visit.” Erik and Arthur sighed but nodded to Isabella.

“We will be here if you need us.” Erik motioned to the waiting room to Isabella.

She nodded and walked forward. The guys made themselves comfortable knowing it was going to be a long visit. Isabella turned the corner and looked through the numbers at the doors to see how much farther she had to go when the sound of voices drew her attention up ahead. A gasp left her lips as her eyes took in the form of the head of the Williams family. Lines had been added to the man's features for his grief. The news of his children's deaths was going to hit him hard.

“She is an employee of my company. Why the hell can I not visit her?!” Connor’s voice was raised in anger. He was curious to see the girl that had been attacked on the ship that had killed his son. Doctor Michell stood tall and unnerved by the aggressive stance or authority pouring out of the man in front of him. Isabella was impressed he stood up to the powerful man without flinching.

“I am sorry Mr. Williams but only family members are permitted to see Miss Johnson. She has only just awakened. I do not want her stable condition at the moment to back track. We are keeping a close eye on her to recover.” The doctor responded calmly.

“She may know who killed my son! She must be questioned.” Mr. Williams glared at the doctor.

“I understand Mr. Williams. However, as her doctor who is in charge of her recovery I can not allow for such to happen until I am convinced she is strong enough to stay awake.” Isabella smiled, applauding the doctor silently.

“As soon as she has been cleared I will have my answers.” Mr. Williams closed the distance between them. His tone dropped dangerously low as he whispered an inch from the doctor's face. “No more tip-toeing around the law than Doctor.” Isabella shivered hiding as fear gripped her at how menacing the man had addressed Doctor Michell. She heard the sounds of footsteps fading away in the other direction. Her heartbeat was in her ears.

The touch of a hand on her shoulder made her jump out of her skin. Doctor Michell softens his tone, “It’s alright Miss Johnson. Mr. Williams is gone now.” Isabella sighed in relief that it had been the doctor. Doctor Michell helped the young girl up from her hiding spot gently.

“How did you know?” Isabella asked.

“I saw you in the corner of my eye.” He answered as he led her to Cassandra’s door. “I would have acknowledged your presence but I did not want his wrath to be turned to you.”

“Thank you.” Isabella truthfully was grateful. “I do not know how you could stand up to such a scary man.”

Doctor Michell laughed. Isabella gave him a strange look that only made him laugh a bit more. “I-I’m sorry. It’s just that he is not the only man to threaten me for protecting a patient recovering from a violent crime for answers.”

“Why would that make you laugh?” Isabella was even more confused as they stopped in front of the closed door. She turned to face the doctor.

“They can’t do anything no matter what threats they make.” Doctor Michell smiled at the young girl. Seeing the next question in her eyes he answered, “His actions are just from grief. Unless the girl was really a threat or murderer then I would be concerned. However, the man is at a loss as to what to do now that there are no substantial leads to aim his anger at besides a doctor. ”

“Oh.” Isabella could see his point but did not find it funny at all. He was going to question the stability of his mind but all of that went away when the door was open revealing a very slim form sitting on the hospital bed gazing out the open window. Her feet would not move.

“Cassandra, I have brought you someone that I am hoping you remember.” Doctor Michell said, stepping into the room towards his patient. He hoped to see something in the young girl's eyes when she turned to look at them. The sound of Isabella’s gasp filled the room drawing the unknown chilly eyes to hers.

The girl that was locking her in a gaze looked unrecognizable. It was as if the girl before her was an empty shell. There was no reaction to seeing Isabella. No smile. The girl's eyes were expressionless much like how the doctor had described. Isabella was rooted to her spot at the doorway. This was not Elizabeth in front of her. There was nothing that remained of her. Isabella did not recognize the hair that was flowing in the breeze from the cracked opened window or the piercing blue eyes that didn’t even seem to really see her standing there.

“How..” Isabella breathed her question. How was this possible? Elizabeth used to have short strawberry blonde hair and light hazel eyes. However, the girl in the bed did not have either.

“I am not sure. She had her original hair last night. When I checked on her this morning at the start of my shift she had silver hair.” Doctor Michell answered motioning for Isabella to step forward. “Do you recognize her, Cassandra?”